A dive into D.J. Eliot’s defensive scheme

According to a report last month from Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel, new Temple head coach Stan Drayton has targeted veteran defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot to fill that post at Temple, and OwlScoop.com has confirmed that Eliot's hiring is expected to be announced soon.

Eliot is an experienced coach who has bounced around college football in recent years, serving as Florida State’s defensive end coach from 2010-12, Kentucky’s defensive coordinator from 2013-16, Colorado’s defensive coordinator from 2017-18, and most recently Kansas’ defensive coordinator from 2019-20.

He’s known as a solid recruiter with a specialty in developing defensive ends and outside linebackers at all his previous stops.

In his season away from college football in 2021, Eliot has been a frequent participant on the Home Visit with Tyler Siskey And The Associates podcast.

Eliot's recruiting profile includes the likes of defensive ends Mario Edwards, who was the top recruit in the 2012 class, and Tank Carradine, who was the top-rated JUCO recruit in the 2011 class.

At Kentucky, he helped coach outside linebackers Josh Allen and Bud Dupree, who were both selected in the first round of the NFL Draft in 2019 and 2015, respectively.

Eliot played for the University of Wyoming and got his start in coaching when he graduated in 1999 and joined the Cowboys’ staff as a graduate assistant.

Here is a breakdown of how Eliot’s defenses have fared by the numbers and what Temple’s scheme could look like in 2022 with him at the helm on that side of the ball.

ELIOT'S DEFENSES BY THE NUMBERS

Starting with Eliot’s most recent stop in Kansas, the numbers aren’t pretty. The Jayhawks’ defense gave up 46 points per game in 2020 and 36.1 points per game in 2019 — both ranked dead last in the conference.

In terms of total yards, Eliot’s Jayhawks’ gave up 459.2 yards per game in 2020, good for last in the Big 12, and 475 yards per game in 2019, second to last in the conference.

Eliot fared a little bit better during his tenure with the Buffaloes in 2017 and 2018. His defenses consistently ranked in the middle of the Pac 12 standings in several categories. They gave up 27.2 points per game and 380.2 yards per game in 2018, and they gave up 28.2 points per game and 450 yards per game in 2017.

Eliot’s tenure as the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator yielded similar results. They allowed 31.2 points per game in 2016 and 27.4 points per game in 2015. Eliot was reportedly stripped of his play-calling duties by Wildcats’ head coach Mark Stoops during the 2016 season.

Obviously, none of these numbers should fill Temple fans with a ton of optimism. With that said, it is important to note that Colorado and Kansas aren’t exactly competing in their respective conferences most seasons, no matter the coaching staff.

As for Kentucky, that is slightly more difficult to explain away. They’ve recently become a respectable team in the SEC with a couple of good statistical seasons on defense without Eliot at the helm.

The talent gap between Temple and The American is much closer than the talent gap between Kansas and the Big 12 and Colorado in the Pac 12, meaning Eliot’s defenses might fare better on North Broad Street.

ELIOT'S DEFENSIVE SCHEME

While numbers are important, they rarely, if ever, tell the full story, especially when evaluating defenses. Evaluating Eliot’s scheme at previous stops can help illuminate what Temple could look like in 2022 and what players they’ll need to fill certain roles.

There is one important caveat with this, too. Coaches change the intricacies of their schemes — at least the good ones do — all the time to fit a certain group of players or a certain conference. This is more of a beginner's guide to Eliot's scheme than anything else.

This will focus mostly on Eliot’s time at Kansas, since it was his most recent stop and likely the closest to what Temple’s defense could look like in 2022 if he joins Drayton's staff.

First, it’s important to establish what Eliot’s base defense was at Kansas. Base defense is the defensive formation a team builds all of their different formations off of and is sometimes, but not always, the most common formation they use.

Eliot’s base at Kansas is a hybrid 3-4 defense, which mostly uses three hand in the dirt defensive lineman, one standup rusher who can line up both on and off the line of scrimmage — hence the hybrid — and three “linebackers.” It looks something like this:

The important positions of note for Temple fans are the standup rusher and the player marked as the overhang. Eliot is a linebackers coach, and it shows in his defense, as both of those players are asked to do pretty much everything throughout a game. Their play is directly correlated with the success of the defense.

The standup rusher functions mainly as a pass rusher, tasked with getting after the quarterback. However, depending on the call, that player is also tasked with short zone responsibilities.

This is a fairly similar role to what Haason Reddick did when he was at Temple.

The overhang player functions primarily as a coverage player tasked with underneath zone and man coverage responsibilities, but depending on the call can also rush the passer as the standup rusher would.

This is pretty much what the BUBO position has become at Temple, so think along the lines of what Sam Franklin was doing back in 2019.

When thinking about recruiting, this means Temple will likely be looking at linebackers who are good coverage players with plus speed.

Second, it is important to identify what coverages Eliot’s defenses employed at Kansas. The Jayhawks ran a lot of cover-three with some pattern matching and cover-one concepts mixed in.

Cover-three is a zone defense where the two outside cornerbacks and a single safety are each responsible for a deep third of the field with underneath zones in the shallow areas of the field. This also involves the strong safety rotating into the box once the ball is snapped.

When the cornerbacks drop into deep zones, the closest linebacker is responsible for covering the vacated underneath zone. Again, coverage ability is a must for linebackers in this defense.

Occasionally, Eliot asked his defense to “pattern match,” which is asking defenders to defend routes instead of designated zones. Basically, defender's responsibilities are dictated by the receiver's routes.

Going back to recruiting, Temple is going to need a free safety — he’s the middle of the field defender — with elite speed and ball skills. The Owls have produced good strong safeties in the past like Amir Tyler, Delvon Randall and Sean Chandler, but the free safety spot has proved to be more difficult.

Third, it’s important to identify the blitz concepts Eliot used at Kansas. Eliot is known as a frequent user of “simulated blitzes.” These are becoming a fixture of top NFL defenses to stop prolific quarterbacks.

The biggest difference between a regular blitz and a simulated blitz is regular blitzes sends the entire defensive line along with a linebacker or secondary player after the quarterback.

A simulated blitz does not send the entire defensive line but still sends a linebacker or secondary player after the quarterback. This often leads to offensive lines confusing their protection assignments.

Oklahoma's offensive line had to account for six potential rushers on this play, but only four ended up rushing. The Sooners' line was so confused they ended up having three linemen blocking a single rusher, while two blockers tried to block three rushers on the other side.

Regular blitzes force defensive coordinators to choose between creating pressure with second-level players and keeping advantageous numbers in coverage. Simulated pressures remove the choice.

Defenses that employ simulated pressures can create pressure with second- and third-level defenders while still dropping seven players into coverage. Ideally, it is the best of both worlds.

However, it comes with some caveats. When dropping defensive lineman into coverage and sending linebackers after the passer, that asks players to do things outside of their roles.

If offenses find a way to block up the pressure, there’s going to be a defensive lineman playing out of position somewhere leading to an easily exploitable mismatch.

To help offset this, Temple’s recruiting will likely focus around athleticism from defensive linemen and pass rush ability in both linebackers and safeties.

Eliot’s defense’s numbers aren’t anything to get excited about, and it will probably take Temple a couple of years to find the right players to capitalize on simulated pressures, but this is a modern approach to defense, which is at least encouraging.

Front page photo credit: David Zalubowski, Associated Press